Angelinus

Chapter 27

Twins

Remus found another knot in his husband's shoulders and dug his thumb in to it. Severus groaned and sighed as his tension was smoothed away. The firm mattress under his chest barely gave as Remus threw all his weight and skill into the massage that would allow him to sleep.

"I don't know why you let yourself get into this state. You should have left it alone and come out of your bloody dungeon when I called you, two nights ago. It serves you right if you never straightened up again," Remus scolded but his hands never faltered in their healing tasks.

"It was too important to leave," Severus replied between moans. "Between information you found on the Internet, the things Desiree Weasley told me and what Harrison Flamel found out, I think I can now create a new body for Linus."

Remus paused and waited for his husband to continue. When he didn't Remus slapped him indignantly. "Okay, just tell me, damn it!"

Severus chuckled evilly, pleased to have gotten a rise out of the normally calm Gryffindor. "It involves a potion, some Muggle genetics and a potent source of magic. The potion will take me forty seven hours to brew with almost continuous supervision. Once it is brewed it has to stand for twenty four hours before it is useable. I have spoken to Dumbledore and he has agreed to allow us to set up in the castle's foundations to be near the greatest source of magic in Britain. However we can only try once as we cannot afford to risk Angelinus again. If it fails then we cannot repeat the effort."

"If it's dangerous for the child then perhaps we should not risk it at all."

"Remus, how many times has Angelinus started to hurt themselves over the course of the holidays because the two halves want to go their own ways? Right now at five years old, it's a matter of pulling hair and pinching. If this situation is not resolved then in the future we will lose them. As they get older, they will grow stronger and more capable of potentially lethal self harm." Both men shuddered at the thought.

"So, what is involved and what can I do to help?" Remus gave tactic permission.

Severus turned over and pulled Remus down into his arms, tapping the invisible mandalla in the centre of his chest. "The conduit will allow you to help Linus separate from Angelina. I'm afraid you are going to have to lead him out and into his new body while I use Legilimency to keep Angelina in her own body."

"But you and Angelina always clash or treat each other with complete formality. Surely it would be better...."

"No. She has to be totally distracted from what is happening to her brother. As soon as Linus is clear then she has to be taken away, out of the magic zone and a warding spell has to be put up to keep her away until Linus has managed to make the new body. If she tries to interfere or even worse, tries to send her spirit to find him, it could destroy them both totally. I thought we could get Poppy to stand by and take her away to the infirmary for monitoring as soon as possible. Once she is clear then I can go on to the next part of the ritual. You, unfortunately, are going to have a very difficult time in places as you have to keep Linus focussed on you and busy with other things while I am removing Angel. He may become distracted and worry about where his sister has gone and that would be equally potentially disastrous to the outcome."

"And that is a bad thing?"

"No, but there may be some residual resentment left after the process is complete. I just hope the children do not end up hating me," he added grimly.

"Oh Sev!" Remus shook his head and kissed him gently. "Go to sleep, you are exhausted and your paranoia valve is working overtime again."

~~<*>~~

The dungeon was cold and damp, situated deep in the roots of the castle and close to the central core of magic that ran through Hogwarts. The cauldron sitting on a dual spell was huge too, big enough to hold a five year old child stretched out flat. Although base iron, it was lined with gold and all the ladles, stirring rods and measuring equipment were gold plated too. The potion itself was a mixture of ingredients and methods such as had never been seen before in any part of the wizarding world.

Severus had asked Linus to hold the body for him and while the little boy was present he had taken a skin sample as well as clipped the boy's hair, fingernails, toe nails and drawn out a small portion of his blood. The clippings were often used in potions such as polyjuice but the skin sample had been rushed off to Desiree who had taken it to work with her. The lab she worked in was in the forefront of genetic research and her colleagues were quite happy to show her how they had managed to make stem cells out of ordinary adult skin cells. She had taken the small sample and the remember-crystal she had produced of the process back to Severus who had simply reproduced the experiment. He managed to make the skin cells multiply at a frightening rate and added all the created cells to a feeding solution so that the brew was ready to be added to the potion he was preparing in large quantities.

After taking a stay-awake potion and lining up many fortifying potions, Severus locked himself in the dungeon and began the brew. He worked with all the concentration he had, bringing to bear the formidable intellect and huge, wide ranging knowledge of the art that made him a Master before he was twenty two. Every movement was precise, every chop was clean edged and every pulverise was perfect. His ability to stir in very precise increments of degrees was sorely tested when each of ten clockwise stirs with the golden rod had to be of three hundred and twelve degrees, not quite a full rotation.

Adding ingredients had its own set of headaches and tolerances that had to be observed minutely. The skin cell brew had to be of a certain thickness and twenty nine drops had to be added every twenty minutes for seven hours. Severus' brew was not quite thick enough at first and he had to gamble on adding thirty drops every second time to countermand the thinness. To complicate matters even further, one sliver of nail a single millimetre long and thick plus one hair had to be added every fifteen minutes at the same time the potion was being added. These multiple tasks with their very precise timing and movements had to be accomplished again and again over the full period of forty seven hours.

By the end of that time, Severus knew he was at the end of his endurance and that he never wanted to go through such a brewing again, at least, not this week. He barely had the strength to open the dungeon door and allow Remus in to rescue him before he slumped into a small, angular pool of blackness on the floor and didn't awaken for twenty two of the necessary twenty four hours.

Finally the elements were ready, everyone was briefed on what they had to do and there was no time to delay any longer. Severus carried Angelinus down to the lowest part of the dungeon where the potion was already prepared and the dual cauldrons were slowly losing temperature. The second cauldron held a common but complex potion that would protect Angelina when she was separated from Linus. It took skill to brew but was nowhere near as complex as the potion Severus had nearly killed himself to produce. Both Angelinus and Remus were shivering as they were laid out on the gurneys he had borrowed from Poppy but Severus seemed immune to the cold as he positioned the two most important people in his life. The first part of the spell required that the children's body temperature be lowered almost to the point of death, where hypothermia caused the mind and the body to separate easily. There, at that cusp point of death, that was where the two souls could be easily and carefully separated with the least possibility of permanent damage.

Dropping a kiss on Angelinus' forehead, he stared into her eyes and caught her mind gently, wrapping it in his own before moving over to Remus and activating the spell he had cast over Remus that morning. Remus too had to be cooled to the point where his soul was able to reach out and contact the children to help separate the boy from the girl who was to remain with the flesh. One of the dangers inherent in a ceremony like this was that the second soul, in this case, Linus, would take over the guide's body and refuse to leave when the ceremony called for it. Because Remus trusted Severus with all his heart and soul, it was possible for Severus to guide and ward him so that he would not end up disembodied after he had separated Linus and held him while his sister was removed from the wards.

When they were both in thrall to his will, Severus closed his eyes and entered the plane of the mind where the biggest and harshest battle of his life was about to commence.

~~<*>~~

Remus recognised the farmhouse as the Australian home of the twins but it was cold now and no sheep baa-ed in the distance. The twins were huddled together in their bedroom, arms wrapped firmly around each other. Neither of them looked up when Remus called to them but they both chose to cling to him when he sat down on the bed beside them. They were freezing! Instinctively, Remus opened his robes and wrapped them both up close to his body, holding them close and chaffing their hands in an effort to make them a bit warmer. He knew he shouldn't do this but it was an instinct older than man.

Finally Severus arrived and shook his head slightly as he studied the small group before him. "It's time to let her go now Remus," he said gently and carefully began to disentangle Angelina from the huddle of humanity. "Come along now Child, time to go."

"No-oo! I wanna stay with Remus; I don't wanna go with you, Uncle Sev! You can't make me!" the little girl protested, twisting and turning in his grip until Severus thought he might drop her. However the reasons were too important to make such a slip at this point and he hung on tightly as the little girl kicked and clawed at his face and eyes, screaming and fighting to get back to her brother.

Remus was not having an easy time either, holding the boy as carefully as he could but using his werewolf strength to stop him tearing away. He had to be so careful not to hurt the boy but he could not let the twins rejoin, of that he was totally sure. He knew he wept at the pitiful wails coming from both children but he could not soften his resolve, dared not, even though it tore his heart to cause such anguish to his cubs.

Finally there was only Linus and he left in the bedroom, the little boy weeping disconsolately and clinging tightly to Remus as if he would never let go. There was no trace of the little girl's sobbing even to Remus' werewolf ears, the silence outside the room almost deafening in its isolation. He wanted to say something comforting to Linus but his teeth were chattering so much he couldn't get his tongue to work properly. In fact he was so cold he could barely feel Linus' arms around him. He looked down slowly to realise they were now totally alone in the bedroom in the Australian farmhouse. He wondered briefly how he was supposed to leave but then he put that care aside and lay down on the bed snuggling Linus up to his side. He was too sleepy to stay sitting up and decided to take a little nap as Linus was. Severus would take care of everything else, he always did.

~~<*>~~

Severus brought himself slowly and carefully out of the trance he had induced, still holding the cold body of the little girl in his arms. He carefully laid her into the first cauldron of potion and muttered the trigger to slowly bring the cauldron up to body temperature. The potion it contained was a liquid ward, a blanket that would stop the child's spirit trying to leave the body and go to find its other half. The buffering effect would also allow Angelina to heal the inner places where Linus used to reside and would fill up the spaces temporarily so that no other roving spirit would attempt to take up residence in her body while it was vulnerable. As soon as the temperature reached thirty six degrees centigrade, Severus carefully moved the cauldron into the side chamber and cast a separate bubble of warding over it before triggering the Summoning Spell.

Dumbledore himself apparated into the antechamber and smiled at the younger teacher. "How is it progressing?"

"Remus and Linus are isolated in Limbo, Linus is holding onto Remus and being fed by his magic. Now I have to separate the child and make him enter the potion. Hopefully I can extract Remus in the next hour or so and you can collect him too."

"Good. Summon me if you need me," the old man reminded him and dissapparated, taking the cauldron with him. As soon as Angelina stirred, she would be removed from the potion and allowed to start breathing again. By that time Remus should have been extracted and he could be with the little girl while she recovered.

Severus drew a deep breath, drank down a vial of fortified potion and went back into the cold and dank main chamber.

~~<*>~~

"I want Angel! Where is Angel Uncle Remus? I have to find Angel!"

"Oh my pet, don't!" Remus hushed, hugging the boy tightly. They had both slept for what felt like hours and Remus had woken up to the boy's distressed cries in the darkened room. "Angel is fine and you are too. I know how scary this is for you but please don't fret so. It will all be over and you will have your own body when it's finished, trust me. You'll like that. You'll be able to play Quidditch with the boys and do all the things you want to do that Angel holds you back from at the moment. You'll like that, won't you?"

"But I can't find Angel! Is she alright? Where is Angel?"

"Angel is perfectly well," a new voice said gently and Severus stepped into the small circle of light the two had created for themselves. "Its time Remus," he murmured then held out his arms to Linus. "Remus has to go now so you come to me. I have something to show you, something just for you."

Remus let Linus go as reluctantly as Linus let him go, the boy taking the hand Severus offered and following the black clad figure out to where a large cauldron stood. It was not a very exciting sight but the boy seemed to find it interesting enough as Severus began to explain the ingredients that had gone into the potion that lay pale and sluggishly moving in the huge cauldron. Linus was always more interested in Severus' work than either Remus or Angelina and often watched and helped while his uncle brewed the simpler potions in his laboratory.

Knowing his part in this side of the experiment was over; Remus concentrated on moving his sluggish arms and legs, returning his spirit to his body and inducing himself to move. Voluntary movement on his part triggered the portkey built into the gurney and he was instantly transported up to the infirmary wing, the wards snapping closed behind him, enfolding the last two souls in their protection. He gulped and groaned as hands eagerly helped pull him into a sitting position and a vial of fortifying potion was poured into his mouth. Every muscle protested until the potion had a chance to work bringing almost instant relief in its wake.

Poppy and Albus peered down anxiously as the werewolf shivered and twitched involuntarily then he groaned and scrubbed at his face. Putting an arm around his shoulders, Albus helped Remus sit up and Poppy helped swing the small man's legs down from the gurney.

"Easy now, take it slowly. You have been out of your body for quite some time and it takes a little to get used to it again," Dumbledore cautioned as Remus forced himself to stand on his own two feet.

"I know, I know but Angelina is starting to wake already and we have to get her out of the soup before she drowns," Remus insisted, staggering across to the cauldron and lifting the little girl's head out of the potion so she could breathe. "There, there, baby, you're alright. Hush now, don't cry so hard. Hush." Cooing and petting, Remus lifted the child out of the cauldron and wrapped her in the large, fluffy towel Poppy handed him. Brushing her hair aside, he kissed her forehead and settled on the rocking chair next to the bed to wait out the storm of weeping the little girl needed to indulge in.

"I can't find Linus," Angelina sobbed bitterly, clinging to her uncle as if she would never let go again.

"He is to have his own body now, remember? We talked about it and told you both what was going to happen, how you would wake up in a big cooking pot and then later, Uncle Severus would bring Linus out of his cooking pot and you could both play together but as two people instead of one body."

"But Linus is not here, in here." She pointed to her head with a shuddering sigh. "What if he never comes back?"

"Do you trust Uncle Severus? Yes, so do I and if he says he will make Linus a new body then that is exactly what he will do, yes? Yes! Now don't fret any more, try to get a little sleep, okay?"

"Sing the cub song please, Uncle Remy, please."

The older people left the werewolf rocking and singing and comforting the tiny child huddled against his chest.

~~<*>~~

Severus explained to the ghostly child spirit at his side that the potion contained bits of Linus all melted down and ready to rebuild into a Linus body. "Is it like making clay models?" Linus asked curiously.

"Yes, sort of. Do you remember when we were on holiday and we watched the ladies making candles? How they dipped the string into the wax and it came out fatter and fatter until it looked like a candle. Then they did the same with the wire shape and it came out as a bull fighter model? Good. Now what you have to do is hop into the potion and dip yourself down and pop up again and slowly you will model a figure around yourself so you will have a body too."

"But I don't want to be a candle," Linus protested glancing up.

Severus grinned, a genuine smile of sheer amusement. "Why not? You would make a fetching candle to stand on the mantle shelf," he teased and Linus giggled, not taking his uncle too seriously. "No child, if you use a human soul then you will make a human being, not a candle, I promise. So, do you want to do it? Are you ready? Good, in you hop."

"Lift me," the boy held out his arms and Severus picked him up, lowering him feet first into the now pleasantly warm soup. "It feels funny," he said, grinning up at his uncle who nodded and urged him to sit down now.

"Now I want you to duck right under as if you were going swimming on the bottom of the pool again. Yes, like the time you scared Uncle Remy half to death." Severus smirked at the memory of Remus' panic when he thought the children were drowning in the swimming pool but didn't let it distract him. "Stay down as long as you can again. Its all right, Uncle Remy won't try and pull you out by the hair because he thinks you are drowning this time."

The child giggled again and ducked under the surface, twisting and turning, enjoying the complete freedom of being submerged in the warm, almost gel like potion. It was so soothing, Severus didn't have to cast a sleep spell over the child, instead the traumatised little soul relaxed and sighed, drifting off to sleep in the deep primordial soup of DNA and nutrients that would consistently and automatically coalesce into a body around his soul.

Severus had no idea of how long he stood clutching the side of the cauldron staring down at the still, shimmery soul at the bottom of his potion. He had no idea when the potion started to coalesce around the soul but after what seemed like forever, and no time at all, the vague outlines of a skeleton became more solid. Before the framework of bone had finished solidifying, the organs of life began to show. Blood vessels like a fine lace body suit reached out to clothe muscle so finely grained it was a work of art in itself.

The miracle of life and growth unfolded as he watched, fine grained skin creeping in a slow tide to veil the working organs from his sight. Features, hair, nails, eyebrows, eyelashes, creases, a couple of moles, and one or two freckles added small details to the long limbed, skinny bodied child who now lay in the bottom of the number thirty seven cauldron. Severus blinked grainy feeling eyes and stretched uneasily as he watched the child sleeping, until he realised the frail little chest did not move or breathe.

"Oh Merlin! Come on Linus, up you come, and start breathing, you little idiot. Linus!" Severus gave him a slight shake then pinched the skin of his tummy viciously. For a second there was no response then the child gusted in a great breath to let out a high pitched squeak of indignation and batted at the hand that pinched. "Oh thank Gods!" Severus breathed, holding the boy close. "Can you talk to me, Linus?"

"I feel funny," he muttered, the words slurred and poorly articulated.

"Yes, you will for a while, until you get used to being in control of your own body," Severus said factually, wiping the child's face with a finger. There was very little residue left from his immersion and Severus nodded in satisfaction. He hoped he had calculated enough potion quantity to make the body as big as it appeared when Linus controlled Angelinus and it looked like he had succeeded. Still holding the child in a fold of his robes, Severus apparated out to the Infirmary where Remus and Angelina waited for them.